Bangsamoro peace process

In the late 1960s, an independence movement was founded in Mindanao, the Philippines to separate the Muslim majority-Moro areas from the rest of the Philippines. The area is now called the Bangsamoro.

In late 1968, at least 28 Muslim volunteers from Sulu who were being trained for a covert mission to Sabah were massacred by Philippine Government troops in the Jabidah Massacre. The first organization of the independence movement was Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founded by Nur Misuari. Subsequent break-away groups include the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters or BIFF.

On March 27, 2014, a comprehensive peace deal was signed between the Government of the Republic of the Philippine, or GRP, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. This was after two decades of negotiations started during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1997.

In pursuit of their goal of “liberating” the Bangsamoro, the MNLF engaged the government forces in extensive armed collisions, peaking in the early 70s when the rebels’ blitz-like operations brought them control of a substantial number of municipalities surrounding Cotabato City and its airport complex. This prompted the Marcos regime to beef up military presence by deploying almost three-fourths of the army in most Muslim parts of Mindanao. Things took a different turn in 1976 when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi brokered an agreement that led to the signing of the Tripoli Agreement that introduced the concept of an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao. On August 1, 1989, under the mandate of the new 1987 Constitution, Congress enacted Republic Act 6734 authorizing the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). However, out of the 13 provinces and 9 cities that participated in the plebiscite, only the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi opted to become part of the ARMM. The ARMM was formally established on 6 November 1990.

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